I admit I didn’t have the best relationship with my dad growing up. He struggled with addiction, and as a teenager, I made the difficult decision to distance myself from him. He overdosed more than ten years ago. I remember feeling both angry and heartbroken—grieving not just his death, but the fact that I had lost my dad to something he couldn’t overcome.
A couple of years after he passed away, I entered into a relationship with my Heavenly Father. And all the anger and sadness I had carried toward my dad began to fade. My heart changed. I started to see him differently. My heart broke for him. He was just like me—a lost sinner in need of the One, True Savior.
One day, I was going through a box of books that had belonged to my grandpa and came across a small, pocket-sized New Testament—one of those Gideon Bibles. Something about it drew me in. When I opened it, I saw my dad’s name written inside, along with a date. It was the date of his baptism.
As I flipped through the pages, I found highlights and notes. At some point, my dad had accepted Christ as his Savior. He was baptized. He had begun reading his Bible.
This is what a relationship with our Heavenly Father does. It brings hope. It brings peace. It brings joy. And it brings a new perspective.